Buying some new parts

[.Maleficus.]

... and Hello there TBCS! Guess what, I'm not dead (yet)! Between school, work (I got a new job), and my various projects that I like to undertake, I haven't had time for any forum-ing in the past few weeks. I also haven't had any time to keep up with hardware, and that is why I come here, my most trusted computer website, for help. Before school started I was on my way to finishing Shark, however that obviously didn't happen. It's been a few weeks since I received my QX6850 and every time I see it I die a little inside knowing that I could be using it but I'm not. SO, to make a long story short, help . Here's the deal.

Last night I purchased this: 4GB G.Skill PC2-1000 for $68. I nearly shat myself when I saw the price (I paid almost 4x that for my 2GB kit of Corsair a year and a half ago). This is unrelated, but I'm tempted to buy another set while it's $30 off with free shipping. Anyways, so I have everything I need to finish Shark, except for the motherboard and GPU water block. The motherboard is where I'm having problems. I can't decide on what I need . I've narrowed it down (for the most part). The main contender right now is...

Asus Maximus II Formula

Nice looking reviews, nice looking board, P45 and a decent price. After that, the Rampage Formula looks nice and to finish off with a 780i board, the MSI P7N Diamond looks like it could be a winner too. Now, I don't know about release dates for new chips either, or even what the successors to the current ones will be, so you hardware gurus, should I wait a couple weeks and get the latest? Is anything new even coming out soon? X58 is on its way in Q4 apparently, but that could be anytime before December. I'm open for any suggestions on other boards too, but the $300 or less price (unless you think it's really worth it) is the best range.

So, what do you think? Buy now, wait for X58 (and P45's replacement) and go from there, or screw all of this and do a Skulltrail build? I was kidding on that last one, but I'm really at a loss right now. Sorry for the unnecessarily long post, it's really early though. And, for anyone that cares, my new job is at *please don't lynch me* Geek Squad. I know most of you find them repulsive, but it's a great place for a 16 year old looking for experience in the computer field.

[crenn]

I'd say Gigabyte boards are currently the best (others will disagree... but I have my reasons) and the P45 is a good chipset, don't get NVidia chipsets, I've heard of corrupt HDDs (not sure if that was resolved or not). I'll be getting my sister a GA-P45-DS4P when she gets a new computer.

[nevermind1534]

There was a driver issue that would not let you format a hard drive over 1TB if you had an nvidia board. The driver was updated for the 1.5TB hdd.

[Eclecticos]

That's great man. Was wondering where you ran off to.
It is amazing how low the price of ram has dropped. With all the ram
manufactures aggressively competing for the lowest price, we all benefit.
I personally like the Rampage Formula motherboard better than the MSI Diamond.

[BerticusPryme]

I will also agree for the rampage formula. But I am happy with my Evga 780I. has ran great for me.

[.Maleficus.]

So would you guys say the Rampage Formula over the Maximus II Formula? Why would you go with one over the other? If it makes any difference, these will be the specs.

Intel Quad Core Extreme QX6850
G.Skill 4GB PC2-1000
EVGA 8800GT Superclocked
Zalman 600W Heatpipe Cooled PSU
Couple of random hard drives
Watercooling (except maybe the north and south bridges, since they both have heatpipes it would probably be more of a pain than it's worth)

If and when I decide to upgrade my graphics cards, the Rampage Formula has CrossfireX but well, I never used my SLI and TBH I like Nvidia more anyways . Would you still say Rampage over Maximus II? Since the Maximus II appears to have beefier cooling, if I didn't watercool the N/S bridges would that change any opinions?